Legends & Romances of Brittany Part 9

"Yes, sir. Do you wish to see it? The wood is cut and tied into bundles of the proper weight and measurement."

"It is well," said the gentleman. "To-morrow I will set you the second task."

On the following morning he took the lad to a knoll some distance from the castle, and said to him:

"You see this rising ground? By this evening you must have made it a garden well planted with fruit-trees and having a fish-pond in the middle, where ducks and other water-fowl may swim. Here are your tools."

The tools were a pick of gla.s.s and a spade of earthenware. The boy commenced the work, but at the first stroke his fragile pick and spade broke into a thousand fragments. For the second time he sat down helplessly. Time pa.s.sed slowly, and as before at midday the damsel in white brought him his dinner.

"So I find you once more with your arms folded," she said.

"I cannot work with a pick of gla.s.s and an earthenware spade,"

complained the youth.

"Here is another wand," said the damsel. "Take it and walk round this knoll, saying: 'Let the place be planted and become a beautiful garden with fruit-trees, in the middle of which is a fish-pond with ducks swimming upon it.'"

The boy took the wand, did as he was bid, and the work was speedily accomplished. A beautiful garden arose as if by enchantment, well furnished with fruit-trees of all descriptions and ornamented with a small sheet of water.

Once more his master was quite satisfied with the result, and on the third morning set him his third task. He took him beneath one of the towers of the castle.

"Behold this tower," he said. "It is of polished marble. You must climb it, and at the top you will find a turtle-dove, which you must bring to me."

The gentleman, who was of opinion that the damsel in white had helped his servant in the first two tasks, sent her to the town to buy provisions. When she received this order the maiden retired to her chamber and burst into tears. Her sisters asked her what was the matter, and she told them that she wished to remain at the castle, so they promised to go to the town in her stead. At midday she found the lad sitting at the foot of the tower bewailing the fact that he could not climb its smooth and gla.s.sy sides.

"I have come to help you once more," said the damsel. "You must get a cauldron, then cut me into morsels and throw in all my bones, without missing a single one. It is the only way to succeed."

"Never!" exclaimed the youth. "I would sooner die than harm such a beautiful lady as you."

"Yet you must do as I say," she replied.

For a long time the youth refused, but at last he gave way to the maiden's entreaties, cut her into little pieces, and placed the bones in a large cauldron, forgetting, however, the little toe of her left foot. Then he rose as if by magic to the top of the tower, found the turtle-dove, and came down again.[36] Having completed his task, he took a wand which lay beside the cauldron, and when he touched the bones they came together again and the damsel stepped out of the great pot none the worse for her experience.

When the young fellow carried the dove to his master the gentleman said:

"It is well. I shall carry out my promise and give you one of my daughters for your wife, but all three shall be veiled and you must pick the one you desire without seeing her face."

The three damsels were then brought into his presence, but the lad easily recognized the one who had a.s.sisted him, because she lacked the small toe of the left foot. So he chose her without hesitation, and they were married.

But the gentleman was not content with the marriage. On the day of the bridal he placed the bed of the young folks over a vault, and hung it from the roof by four cords. When they had gone to bed he came to the door of the chamber and said:

"Son-in-law, are you asleep?"

"No, not yet," replied the youth.

Some time afterward he repeated his question, and met with a similar answer.

"The next time he comes," said the bride, "pretend that you are sleeping."

Shortly after that his father-in-law asked once more if he were asleep, and receiving no answer retired, evidently well satisfied.

When he had gone the bride made her husband rise at once. "Go instantly to the stables," said she, "and take there the horse which is called Little Wind, mount him, and fly."

The young fellow hastened to comply with her request, and he had scarcely left the chamber when the master of the castle returned and asked if his daughter were asleep. She answered "No," and, bidding her arise and come with him, he cut the cords, so that the bed fell into the vault beneath. The bride now heard the trampling of hoofs in the garden outside, and rushed out to find her husband in the act of mounting.

"Stay!" she cried. "You have taken Great Wind instead of Little Wind, as I advised you, but there is no help for it," and she mounted behind him. Great Wind did not belie his name, and dashed into the night like a tempest.

"Do you see anything?" asked the girl.

"No, nothing," said her husband.

"Look again," she said. "Do you see anything now?"

"Yes," he replied, "I see a great flame of fire."

The bride took her wand, struck it three times, and said: "I change thee, Great Wind, into a garden, myself into a pear-tree, and my husband into a gardener."

The transformation had hardly been effected when the master of the castle and his wife came up with them.

"Ha, my good man," cried he to the seeming gardener, "has any one on horseback pa.s.sed this way?"

"Three pears for a sou," said the gardener.

"That is not an answer to my question," fumed the old wizard, for such he was. "I asked if you had seen any one on horseback in this direction."

"Four for a sou, then, if you will," said the gardener.

"Idiot!" foamed the enchanter, and dashed on in pursuit. The young wife then changed herself, her horse, and her husband into their natural forms, and, mounting once more, they rode onward.

"Do you see anything now?" asked she.

"Yes, I see a great flame of fire," he replied.

Once more she took her wand. "I change this steed into a church," she said, "myself into an altar, and my husband into a priest."

Very soon the wizard and his wife came to the doors of the church and asked the priest if a youth and a lady had pa.s.sed that way on horseback.

"Dominus vobisc.u.m," said the priest, and nothing more could the wizard get from him.

Pursued once more, the young wife changed the horse into a river, herself into a boat, and her husband into a boatman. When the wizard came up with them he asked to be ferried across the river. The boatman at once made room for them, but in the middle of the stream the boat capsized and the enchanter and his wife were drowned.

The young lady and her husband returned to the castle, seized the treasure of its fairy lord, and, says tradition, lived happily ever afterward, as all young spouses do in fairy-tale.

FOOTNOTES:

[20] _Roman de Rou_, v. 6415 ff.

[21] Consult original ballad in Vicomte de la Villemarque's _Chants populaires de la Bretagne_.